The Hemingway Report

Thursday, December 6, 2018

What do you think the odds are they went out for a drink together after the service?

Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Biden: ‘I think I am the most qualified person in the country to be president’

Former Vice President Joe Biden fueled speculation he might make a 2020 bid for the White House, saying Monday night that he believes he is the "most qualified" person to take on President Trump.

"I'll be as straight with you as I can. I think I'm the most qualified person in the country to be president," Biden said at a stop for his book tour in Missoula, Montana. "The issues that we face as a country today are the issues that have been in my wheelhouse, that I've worked on my whole life."

"No one should run for the job unless they believe that they would be qualified doing the job. I've been doing this my whole adult life, and the issues that are the most consequential relating to the plight of the middle class and our foreign policy are things that I have - even my critics would acknowledge, I may not be right but I know a great deal about it," he added.

Said in true Biden fashion.

Biden deflected several possible disadvantages of a potential campaign, including his gaffe-prone rhetoric, his age and his chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Anita Hill hearing, which has sparked concerns that he is not in touch with the concerns of the #MeToo movement.

Monday, December 3, 2018

Sanders eyes 'bigger' 2020 bid despite some warning signs

BURLINGTON, Vt. — An insurgent underdog no more, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is laying the groundwork to launch a bigger presidential campaign than his first, as advisers predict he would open the 2020 Democratic presidential primary season as a political powerhouse.

A final decision has not been made, but those closest to the 77-year-old self-described democratic socialist suggest that neither age nor interest from a glut of progressive presidential prospects would dissuade him from undertaking a second shot at the presidency. And as Sanders' brain trust gathered for a retreat in Vermont over the weekend, some spoke openly about a 2020 White House bid as if it was almost a foregone conclusion.

"This time, he starts off as a front-runner, or one of the front-runners," Sanders' 2016 campaign manager John Weaver told The Associated Press, highlighting the senator's proven ability to generate massive fundraising through small-dollar donations and his ready-made network of staff and volunteers.

Weaver added: "It'll be a much bigger campaign if he runs again, in terms of the size of the operation."

Amid the enthusiasm — and there was plenty in Burlington as the Sanders Institute convened his celebrity supporters, former campaign staff and progressive policy leaders — there were also signs of cracks in Sanders' political base. His loyalists are sizing up a prospective 2020 Democratic field likely to feature a collection of ambitious liberal leaders — and not the establishment-minded Hillary Clinton.

Instead, a new generation of outspoken Democrats such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and California Sen. Kamala Harris are expected to seek the Democratic nomination. All three have embraced Sanders' call for "Medicare for All" and a $15 minimum wage, among other policy priorities he helped bring into the Democratic mainstream in the Trump era.

Acknowledging the stark differences between the 2016 and 2020 fields, Hollywood star Danny Glover, who campaigned alongside Sanders in 2016, would not commit to a second Sanders' candidacy when asked this weekend.

"I don't know what 2020 looks like right now," Glover said before taking a front-row seat for Sanders' opening remarks. "I'm going to support who I feel to be the most progressive choice."

Maybe Glover will come around. After all, they're both lunatics.

Danny Glover Blames Haiti Earthquake on Global Warming

Video 471

Friday, November 30, 2018

White South Africans lose legal fight against plans to seize their land

Cyril Ramaphosa has made land redistribution from white farmers to black disadvantaged citizens a flagship policy.

A few years from now South Africa will be on the same economic level with Mozambique.

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South Africa's High Court rejected a legal challenge today brought by a group representing white farmers against President Cyril Ramaphosa's plans for land expropriation without compensation.

Land is a hot-button issue in South Africa where racial inequality remains entrenched more than two decades after the end of apartheid when millions of the black majority were dispossessed of their land by a white minority.

Ramaphosa, who replaced scandal-plagued Jacob Zuma in February, has made land redistribution a flagship policy as he seeks to unite the fractured ruling African National Congress (ANC) and win public support ahead of an election next year.

In its legal challenge, Afriforum questioned the legality of a key parliamentary committee report which recommended a change to the constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation.

President Cyril Ramaphosa (right) arriving at the G20 summit by Argentina's Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Faurie, at Ezeiza International airport in Buenos Aires yesterday

'The relief sought by the applicants... is dismissed,' said Judge Vincent Saldanha.

Afriforum, which represents mostly white Afrikaners, alleged that the parliamentary committee had illegally appointed an external service provider to compile the report, and also failed to consider more than 100,000 submissions opposing land expropriation without compensation.

Around 65 percent of public submissions were against a change, according to parliamentary officials.

Parliament successfully countered Afriforum's case by saying the court action was premature, the committee had not abrogated its powers and all views had been taken into account.

'We welcome the orders handed down today particularly because we've always been of the view that the matter was not urgent,'

Lewis Nzimande, co-chair of the constitutional review committee, told reporters outside the High Court in Cape Town.

'They [lawmakers] may set aside the recommendations, they may reject the recommendations but procedurally... we can't just reject the whole work of the committee,' he said.